Catie: Delicious food

Sorry we've not been keeping up with the blog.  I think we've settled in a bit and everything's kind of lost it's shimmer.  Not that we don't like it, we still do.  Everything's just not as shiny, new and exciting.  It's been hard thinking of things to write about.

We've started cooking -- a little.  We've now made spaghetti (eh..), stir-fry twice, and pesto with chicken and vegetables.  Also, pancakes (Bisquick from Costco!), french toast (all the bread here is Texas toast-esque, very thick, perfect for french toast) and we had to make the syrup ourselves with the mapleine we brought.  I would recommend that to travelers.  There is real, live maple syrup here, but, like back home, it's usually real expensive.  And, what at home would cost maybe $8.00, costs $13.00 here.  So, we're very happy with our -- what? maybe $3.00 -- mapleine purchase  that will probably last us until we leave.  Unless we eat a lot of pancakes....  a distinct possibility.

It's been fun figuring out what we can cook here, but it's also been pretty hindered.  In our kitchen, we have one giant wok-like skillet, coated in peeling teflon.  That was left behind by the previous teachers and we plan to replace it in November.  We have one, very tiny aluminum saucepan and one very tiny little aluminum pot.  We have three ladles, one flimsy pancake turner, a whisk, and a wooden spatula.  We have two cutting boards, two forks, and four spoons, plus one pair of wooden bamboo chopsticks and about five pairs of the Korean metal chopsticks.  Then we have our rice cooker (it's awesome -- good rice in a matter of 15 minutes), our gas range top thing, and our lazy toaster oven that barely wants to work at all.  And I mean it only has one job -- heat up to cook things.  Can that really be so hard?

Apparently so since it would rather function as a dehydrator, drying all our food to crunchy ghosts of their former  selves.

We will also be replacing the toaster oven come November as well as purchasing a microwave.  I have very high hopes for our Thanksgiving.

In other news, we are going to the National park to hike on Saturday, so we should have something to say for a change.

- catie

P.S. I have typed most of this post using my left hand and the tip of my ice cream cone with my right hand (what? i have to EAT it... and I have to type -- simple solution!)... so, if there are gross misspellings, know that it is not my lack of intellect (not that inability to spell implies lack of intellect), but rather my phenomenal ability to make do with what is available to me.